Travel with Angela Lansbury: Chicago Cheesecake and New York Cheesecake, in Starbucks and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

The coffee bean and Tea leaf at expo. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I love cheesecake, baked cheesecake. The taste. The texture. I have known cheesecake all my life since the 1960s or 1970s.

Not those wobbly, insubstantial frozen jellies, like frozen yogurt, which claim to be cheesecake. With brightly coloured, ersatz gelatine toppings. Deigned to look like oranges or strawberries or blueberries but not tasting of anything fresh. When did they appear? Much later. I like proper, substantial, filling, baked cheesecake.

The essential ingredients are cream cheese, sugar and eggs. Add a crunchy biscuit base or better still a proper shortbread pie base to mitigate, or counteract, the sugariness.

In Starbucks it is called New York cheesecake. Why New York? I used to have it in London. Anyway, what Starbucks calls New York cheesecake, I call proper cheesecake. Baked cheesecake.

It contains cream cheese. Something to make it sit solid. And a crumbly biscuity base.

At one time cheesecake was just another sort of cake. Then it became more expensive than other cakes.

Chicago Cheesecake

You may imagine my surprise and confusion when I was faced with Chicago Cheecake. It was in The Coffee Bean And Tea leaf outside the entrance to Expo, the large exhibition centre, in Singapore, one stop on the MRT train line from Changi airport.

I wondered, was this just marketing, a way of distinguishing their cheesecake from that of rival Starbucks, who I imagined might have invented the name.

I asked the assistant. She was smiling and helpful but she didn't know.

I tried the Chicago cheesecake. It was not quite what I expected, but good enough.

Later I went onto the internet. I looked everywhere. Wikipedia has now subdivided itself into a dozen categories. There is Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquotes, Simple wiki, Wiki commons, wikitravel, wikivoyage. Wiki food and recipes and country portals and whatnot.

Finally, I tracked it down, the differences. Not so different. Of course, every recipe can be found with fifty variations, one pinch of salt or two, this kind of sugar or that, add optional cinnamon, an egg, two eggs, water or milk or cream. With or without alcohol.

So it was with Chicago and New York cheesecake.

Chicago Cheesecake at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Expo, Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The price was seven Singapore dollars fifty cents. Does that sound a lot? We had one slice of cake between two of us. Cheesecake is very calorific and filling.

At Expo they have bar stools and high tables. Also low tables with proper chairs, small tables for twosomes, for couples, or larger tables for foursomes.

You can download their app onto your mobile phone and start collecting loyalty points.

I did that after our second visit. There was no cost. It just took me a while. The staff helped me to do it. You can download the app from the Apple appstore or googleplay.

Gifts

Chicken wrap at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

You can buy stainless steel tumblers, ceramic mugs, coffee and tea, on subscription, gift sets seasonally for Xmas, and for children.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Wikipedia revealed<

Chicago

Chicago-style cheesecake is a baked cream cheese version that is firm on the outside with a soft and creamy texture on the inside. These cheesecakes are often made in a greased cake pan and are relatively fluffy in texture. The crust used with this style of cheesecake is most commonly made from shortbread that is crushed and mixed with sugar and butter. Some frozen cheesecakes are Chicago-style.^[31]

New York

New York cheesecake is said to have been invented, or named by a man called Reuben

New York–style cheesecake

New York–style cheesecake uses a cream cheese base, also incorporating heavy cream or sour cream.^[32] The typical New York cheesecake is rich and has a dense, smooth, and creamy consistency.^[33]

Arnold Reuben is said to have created and named the New York cheesecake in Reuben's Restaurant in New Yoirk in the 1920s.

Useful Websites

Chicago Cheescake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesecake#:~:text=Chicago%2Dstyle%20cheesecake%20is%20a,are%20relatively%20fluffy%20in%20texture.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

coffeebean.com.sg

https://www.coffeebean.com/cafe-menu

https://www.coffeebeanrewards.com/

https://store.coffeebean.com/pages/how-to-make-a-latte-at-home

New York Cheesecake

Starbucks

https://athome.starbucks.com/recipe/vanilla-coffee-cheesecake